


Two Ghosts Meet in a Bar

by InkSplatterM



Category: Captain America (Comics), Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Astral ghost Madelyne, F/M, Gen, More as needed - Freeform, takes place just after Winter Soldier #14 by Ed Brubaker
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-30
Updated: 2016-03-30
Packaged: 2018-05-30 01:12:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6401860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkSplatterM/pseuds/InkSplatterM
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So. Tell me about Natasha?”<br/>That was one hell of a loaded question. Bucky danced his beer bottle on the bar top, tilting it left and right.<br/>“Natasha is…” everything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Ghosts Meet in a Bar

“Natasha?”

The moment the name was out of his mouth, Bucky knew that he was far too deep in the bottle for the night. Natasha’s hair was a dark auburn, the red visible when the light hit it just right. This woman had penny-bright orange hair.

Her smile looked like it was photo-shopped. “No, but I can be.”

“What? How?”

There was a long moment before the end of her hair started to change to Natahsa’s auburn. Bucky laid a hand on her arm.

“No. No, stop.” It was his metal hand on her arm, no wonder it didn’t feel like he was touching anything. “Gotta name you’d rather be called?”

“Madelyne.” Her smile turned real. It was softer this way, hidden within a certain amount of something like sadness. “And you?”

Bucky didn’t know what to say for a moment, cataloging all the names he’d gone by over the years: James, Bucky, Alexsandr, the Winter Soldier. There was a look in Madelyne’s eyes like she knows his name, all of his names, even before he says “James, but I’m usually called Bucky.”

“Bucky? Like Captain America’s partner? Your parents must like history.” It was an invitation to accept a cover. You didn’t need to be a mind reader to understand that. A warm feeling settled in Bucky’s chest, something separate from the alcohol he’s had. How odd. How nice. Madelyne knew exactly who he was – how she knew Bucky couldn’t bring himself to care about – she knew, and she didn’t care. He took another swig of his beer. Bucky had had a few friends over the years who hadn’t cared about that he’d been the Bucky, Captain America’s partner, nor cared what he had done while under control of the Russians. None from a stranger. As nice as it was, he couldn’t help but feel the haze of alcohol burn away, just a bit, to stand on the knife edge of trust and distrust.

“You could say that. What about you? Any nicknames from friends or family?”

“Don’t have friends. Family doesn’t want me.”

And the smile was back to looking like photo-shop again. Steer clear of that particular topic.

“So. Tell me about Natasha?”

That was one hell of a loaded question. Bucky danced his beer bottle on the bar top, tilting it left and right.

“Natasha is…” everything. The word was on the tip of his tongue. He couldn’t say it. Not because it wasn’t true, but because it barely even touched the surface of who Natasha was as a person and who she had been to him. Bucky started over.

“Natasha is grace in every action. When she’s taking someone out, she is graceful, and when she forgives someone, it’s the same. I love every bit of her, even the parts that drive me nuts, because it’s all her.” He didn’t get into anything classified, he wasn’t drunk enough for that, but anything else was fair game for him to talk about. Through it all, Madelyne listened, leaning forward slightly as if Bucky was the only person in the world who mattered. Like him unloading his pain at the way his life had fractured apart at the moment was something that was worth hearing about. “We met at a time in our lives where we had very few choices that we could make, and we chose each other. But now… Now things are different, and I just want her to be happy, even if I can’t be a part of that happiness anymore.”

Madelyne traced the condensation on her glass as she spoke. “I have to ask, since you mentioned choices, have you ever told Natasha about how you were removed from her memories?”

Wait… Bucky’s eyes narrowed. He hadn’t directly said that at all, even if he had been thinking it. The question was a good one though.

“No, I’m not going to be another asshole who takes her ability to choose away from her.”

“But, by not telling her, haven’t you removed her ability to choose anyway?”

“… You are too logical for my current state of inebriation. But that is what’s also letting me gloss over the fact that I never mentioned Natasha’s memory loss.”

Madelyne at least looked embarrassed, her cheeks became a red a few shades darker than her hair. More than embarrassed, she looked mortified. The frown on her face was at herself. A loss of control on something? Her voice broke in a quiet way that was far to familiar. Self-recrimination. “I honestly thought you did. My question still stands, though.”

“I don’t know. All I do know is that I couldn’t make that choice for her. It wouldn’t be right.”

Her other hand covered Bucky’s. He had still been touching her the whole time, his metal hand laying gently over her own. It was good, he thought, to be able to talk to someone who hadn’t known Natasha; who hadn’t been there for the entire FUBAR situation. He knocked back the last of his drink.

“Want to leave?”

“I’ll go where you go.” Madelyne’s smile had tipped back to being a real smile again. The thing like sadness in it was leaning more towards being ironic this time. There was a joke that had gone over Bucky’s head in there, and he was not up to trying to identify what it was.

His left arm curled around her shoulders as they left the bar, heads bent close together. Anyone looking would say that they were going to go off to find a private room. They did, but their clothing stayed on. Madelyne stayed on his left side through out the walk to his motel room, leaned against his metal arm when he reached across for the TV remote.

There was nothing good on at this time of night, so Bucky turned to the pay-per-view channels and ordered the first movie that didn’t look like it would be complete shit. The bed had a spring that poked the middle of his back unless he laid on the right side of the bed. Giving the lady the faulty spring was not the thing to do though, But when he turned to settle down, Madelyne was already there, having stacked both pillows behind her back.

“Sneaky girl.” He said, settling beside her and drawing her close by her shoulders, again with his left arm. She leaned against him, seemingly weightless. Her hair had no scent to it.

The next morning, Bucky woke up alone, his left arm still curved as if it was around a pair of delicate, solid shoulders.


End file.
